Ep. 4 - BODIES (Pt. 1&2)
Episode Info & Credits
Guests:
Part 1
Dr. Shakina Nayfack - Shakina is a is an actress, educator, director, dancer, singer, producer, and social activist who can be seen on Marvel's Jessica Jones, the TBS comedy The Detour, as Lola in Hulu's cult comedy series Difficult People, and maybe most notably as Ava in Amazon's Transparent, A Musical Finale. Currently, you can see Shakina in a lead role on the NBC comedy Connecting. Dr. Nayfack has contributed massively and in countless ways to the visibility and empowerment of the transgender community, both through her career and in her personal life. In 2016 she embarked on her "Rebel Tour" of North Carolina, performing in protest of the anti-trans law HB2, known colloquially as "the bathroom bill," which removed LGBTQ people from the state's nondiscrimination policy and forced transgender people to use public restrooms that correspond with the gender marker they were assigned at birth.
Shakina’s autobiographical rock musicals One Woman Show (2013), Post-Op (2015), and Manifest Pussy (2106) all premiered to sold-out houses at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in New York City. She has performed on Broadway in 24-Hour Plays and Gypsy Of The Year, as well as Off-Broadway in M.J. Kauffman's Masculinity Max at The Public Theater, and in Manuel Versus The Statue Of Liberty (As Lady Liberty).
She is a Lilly Award winner and two-time Drama League Fellow, and is the Founding Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory (MTF), a non-profit artist service organization dedicated to developing new work.
Shakina roots herself as a Butoh-inspired artist trained beneath Diego Piñón, founder of Body Ritual Movement. With an MFA in Experimental Choreography and a PhD in Critical Dance Studies (both from the University of California at Riverside), Shakina has pioneered her own Butoh for the Actor method, developed through master classes at the University of California at Santa Cruz, the Chicago Cultural Center, Casa del Teatro in Mexico City, Barrington Stage Company, The Drama League, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, and most recently as adjunct faculty at NYU Tisch Drama. Shakina has written about her work with Diego Piñón in the anthology Dancing Across Borders (University of Illinois Press, 2009) and is a featured artist in The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance (2018). She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Community Studies and Graduate Certificate in Theatre from UC Santa Cruz.
Part 2
Julia Feldman - With 14+ years of experience in formal education, Julia has served as a classroom teacher, administrator, content area specialist, curriculum designer and professional development expert. She is passionate about sharing open, empowering, and scientifically accurate sex education with people of all ages. Julia lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her partner and 5-year-old kiddo. She holds a B.A. in Sociology and International Development from McGill University, an M.A. in Education from Alliant University, and additional credentials in teaching and administration from Cal State University, East Bay. You can find Julia on the web at GivingTheTalk.com, and on Instagram at @GivingTheTalk. And check out her recent contribution to Mother Magazine, Why Not Hugging Grandma Is OK!
Ellen & Tom Macy - Ellen and Tom are the parents of three girls. Ellen is a singer and actress, and Tom is co-founder of Social Hour Cocktails. The family recently moved from Brooklyn to upstate New York, where they are enjoying the relative calm and space.
Lori Manette - Lori lives in Jersey City, NJ, with her adopted child, Charlie. She is a musical theater writer whose work has been featured at the New York Musical Theater Festival, Goodspeed Opera House, New York Theater Barn, and the Lincoln Center Songbook Series. She is a Dramatist Guild Fellow.
Topher Payne - Topher is an Atlanta-based playwright, actor, director, and educator, and has penned screenplays for 5 Hallmark movies. He is a three-time winner of the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, a recipient of the 2016 Suzi Bass Award for Best World Premiere for Let Nothing You Dismay, and in 2018 was inducted into The Georgia Theater Hall of Fame. His series of children’s book parodies, called “Topher Fixed It”, has garnered praise and criticism for addressing the problematic messaging in the books by re-writing the endings. Topher’s play Gifted: A Socially Distant Holiday Comedy, premieres December 3rd, online, at QueensTheatre.org.
You can find Topher on the web at TopherPayne.com.
Other Credits/Thanks:
Thanks to Lisa and Melanie for appearing on this episode via voice memo. And to Dana Gertz for designing our logo and primary artwork. You can(‘t) find Dana’s work at www.gertzdesign.com. And thanks to my family, Jenny, Harrison, and Ezra, for making it possible for “The Talk” to exist at all.
